Convener Professor Sheldon Pollock, the William B. Ransford Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Studies
Columbia University

The Indian Institute of Advanced Study in collaboration with Sheldon Pollock and Allison Busch of Columbia University, and with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in New York City is planning a series of Classical Summer Schools, beginning in May, 2011. For our purposes here, "Classical Studies" includes literary or intellectual historical studies, without regard to language or region, based on texts written prior to 1800. Our aim with these summer schools is to help reinvigorate classical studies at a moment when they are, in the view of many, perilously endangered.
The Classical Summer Schools will bring together young scholars from India and South Asia, but also Europe and the US--dissertators, post-doctoral scholars, junior professors--for intensive discussion of their scholarly projects, and, on occasion for actual philological study and textual analysis. The aim is to help young scholars develop the tools for turning language knowledge into conceptually rich and historically sensitive humanistic knowledge, in the hope of enhancing the theoretical sophistication and intellectual status of classical Indian studies in the subcontinent and around the world.

To help plan these schools, IIAS is organizing a workshop of eminent classical scholars to take place on April 25th and 26th. We are hoping our conversation at Shimla can be wide-ranging. We are not asking for any written papers, but we would invite participants to reflect in advance on some key questions and come prepared to speak to the major issues in his or her language area. Here is a non-exhaustive list of questions: Have classical studies in South Asia deteriorated, and if so, what causes can be identified? What needs to be done to reverse the trend? How can we best design the Classical Summer Schools to serve the needs of students? How do we identify and then reach out to the most promising students and young faculty, the people who have a chance to make a difference in the coming generation?